Company - SpeedyLook encyclopedia

The contractor

The contractor is before a whole individual who anticipates a Besoin, assembles and organizes the Outils and the Compétence S necessary to satisfy this need. By doing this, it takes the Risque that this need does not materialize or that the means which it set up to satisfy it reveal inadequate.

Historically, the contractor is an intermediary, a Courtier in work: one places to him from the firm controls of goods or of services, he seeks the workmen who will produce each one part of this order and he makes sure of the good delivery. This in a context where the division of the labor too little is marked, where the workmen work in residence, and have of their tools and even their machines (weaving loom for example).

A contractor is especially a " man orchestre" , able to optimize the requirements in capital and human resources to undertake a licit and advantageous activity. With this intention, its legal knowledge becomes increasingly necessary because the organization and the access to the market require it.

One finds still today this type of organization, for example, in the industry of transport, the services (engineering,…) where beside great groups, of independent are owners of their work tools (truck, barge or barges) and find their clients via brokers.

With the Industrial revolution, the contractors change, they are equipped with machines and preserve the same workmen a long time, which gives rise to the companies with the traditional direction. In the modern economy, where the services took the step on industry, the concept of employee took it also the step on that of workman.

A company rests on a certain number of vital functions which ensure its operation.

Generally, the companies found a Hiérarchie among their employed S: those which are located at a lower level (ex: team-members, collaborators, employed,…) obey those located at a higher level (managers, frameworks, project managers,…).

Forms of companies

The fact of undertaking - in all the countries - is framed by a regulation. The majority of the companies thus function within a framework predetermined by the law. In the context of a capitalist economy, it is possible to have a company with personal capacity: it is then about an individual business, i.e. that the contractor exerts directly and in its own name the economic activity.

That does not exclude the existence from a trade name but, from a legal point of view, only the natural person who is the contractor engages (signature of the contracts, birth of the rights and obligations rising from the activity directly in the inheritance of the individual).

The exercise of an activity in the form of individual business relates to the small companies in general. For example, in France, 96.6% of the 3 million companies which the country includes/understands are Très Small companies from 0 to 3 collaborators.

It is also possible to constitute a Moral person in the form of company. This one can group several participants in his Capital and is ready to make acts of management. The various shapes of companies vary according to the countries.

It is then advisable to distinguish the effective property from the company and the capacity to achieve acts of managements in the name of the company. According to the social form the person in charge of the current walk of the company will be called a Gérant, general President-director or Managing director. The holder of this function can be holder of partnership shares or actions or be active.

The fact that a company uses the shape of joint stock company necessarily does not imply that these titles are with dimensions in purse (or even as she is regarded as making public Appel with the saving). If it is the case, of the purchases out of purse or the public offerings can make change the majority of control of the company, and also lead to the change of its direction.

General economic objectives

The function first of a company varies according to the company or even according to the points of view within the same company (ex: point of view of the shareholder, the employee, the trade union, the direction,…). Among the various operational functions usually observed, one finds:

to serve the Gone, by producing and distributing well S and service S corresponding to a solvent Request. It is its only economic justification , no company not being able to survive without making its priority of it, unless being protected and apart from the field from the Concurrence (ex: case of some Public services), which, from a purely economic point of view, can lead it to consume more resources than it does not have utility, often with the detriment of the community.
to earn money, i.e. to extract from the financial benefit in “collecting more money than of invested money”, in particular to attract the Institutional investors and the small shareholders,
to produce a cash surplus, which will be invested with a greater profit in the development of the activities or another company (within the framework of a “group”).
to maximize, according to the statute, the social utility (to improve the situation of the company) or the Profit (difference between the selling price and the cost of the consumed resources).
to achieve a technical goal: realization of a work (tunnel, bridge, road…), manufacture of a manufactured good, design and realization of a service giving satisfaction to a customer. This technical goal can itself be extremely varied, one will quote in particular:

the activities which are not, for the contractor, principal stake, but a means with the service of another activity: for example possession of press groups, of production of strategic resources or companies vectrices of images (with the example of the presence of the cigarettiers in the industry of the ready-made clothes),
the agricultural cooperatives which are companies which aim at releasing a benefit not for themselves, but for the adherent co-operators,
the “Entreprise insertion” aim at making ready their employees to occupy a “normal” work, without seeking in certain cases (Atelier building site of insertion) to generate benefit.

Certain companies can divert the functions first company, in particular for:

to camouflage legal or illegal activities (ex: certain activities like the play, the exchange, the washing of cars, the real estate… are known to allow “recycling” or the “bleaching” of the money resulting from illegal activities).

Various political points of view on the functional utility of the private company was formalized during the history and of the development of the economic thinking:

of its total uselessness, outcome with its suppression and/or its Collectivization,
with its complete utility (in particular in term of job creation), outcome with its encouragement and the development of the SME, TPE, artisanal companies, Liberal professions.

Function division inside the structure

Operational functions (ex: production, accountancy, trade, marketing, control of management,…) who rise from the economic objectives of the company can be:

exerted by groups of people organized in services, departments… in the case of the large companies (ex: service of the Resources,
sub-contracted with outside firms service providers (ex: external communication) or
to the extreme, exerted by a person working only, in general intervening as external consultant (ex: expert quality).

It does not have there direct relationships and automatics between the functions and the structures' of a company, so that its organization can differ largely from the one with the other. The structure is besides often relatively flexible and evolutionary. It is very dependant on the size, the localization, the branch of industry, the model of business (Business model) and on the strategy of the company.

See also: Operation and organization of the company

Actors of the company

The company is an organized medium gathering several diversified sociological positions:

holders of the capital of the company, when the legal support of the company is a deed of partnership (shareholders, owners of the partnership shares of the company),
management of the firm (elected by the shareholders when it there of a),
employees of the company (recruited by the management of the firm).

According to the size and the legal status chosen by the company, these actors are sometimes confused: a shoe manufacture functioning with a single person can either concern an artisanal activity without capital nor paid, that is to say to be made up in company, the same person being at the same time holder of the capital, social and single agent paid.

The larger companies are generally made up in company and these actors are differentiated.

Shareholders

The Actionnaire S hold the capital of the company which carries the company. Their role is to bring the financial funds necessary to the development of the company, to choose the members of Management and to check the good administration of the businesses by Management. They perceive incomes on the benefit of the company, called Dividende S.

Direction

It is made up people in load of the management of the go concern of the company and deployment of the entrepreneurial strategy validated by the Actionnaire S.

Its remuneration is in general made of wages, as well as form of profit-sharing, often in the form of Stock-option S or financial no-claims bonus more or less indexed on the performance of the company.

See also: chairman, Manager.

Collaborators

They are in general made up:

of the tallies S , in load of the management and the control of the operations by the framing of adapted human resources,
of the employees , in load of the execution of the commercial processes and of production in connection with the framing.

They perceive a Salaire in exchange of their work provided within the company.

See also: Paid S, Framework S.

Actors in co-operation or Actors in competition?

Certain approaches of the company rest on the principle that the three categories of actors of the private company (shareholders, direction, paid) are carrying divergent interests and they oppose the interests of the Salarié S and those of the Actionnaire S.

Other approaches of the company rest on a vision Systémique more controlled and more co-operative between the three categories of actors.

See also: Management#Organization of work

Seek benefit

Finality of the benefit: to remunerate the risk taken by the shareholder

Among the various goals possible for a company, the research of the benefit occupies an important place. The benefit of the company (to be distinguished from the profit) is used above all for the return on the invested capital.

In the case of the companies known as capitalist, if an investor (a person who has money) decides to rather place it in a company than to preserve it, it is that it wishes that the money thus placed in the company bear to him more. If a company does not generate a sufficient profit redistributed in the form of Dividende S, its reputation tarnishes and it does not attract any more the investors. Its capacity of development (in general consuming capital for - for example - opening subsidiary companies abroad or starting of new programs of innovation) even its survival are some then obérées, even can be called into question.

For each branch of industry, there exists a level of awaited “normal” profit. Thus, for example, in the pharmaceutical sector of the years 2000, the mean level of awaited profit was of 15% /an funded capital (it is much!). If a company generates less profit, the shareholders who placed their economies there (directly or more often indirectly via a bank or a pension fund) are disappointed, lose possibly confidence in the authorized investment and sell their actions: the price of the company (that it is out of purse or not) decreases then and the remaining investors lose there.

A capitalist company whose profits are weak too a long time does not have an economic justification: it in general is closed or repurchased. In the case of undertaken social economy, it will perdura if it brings a social utility to the company (ex: undertaken reintegration) and if it finds a backer ready to finance the possible losses of them (ex: territorial collectivity). Lastly, the family companies - at the same time private and not - dimensioned - can find a balance between high profits and social utility and succeed on the long run, in particular by their size on the human scale and the proximity of the Management with respect to the Salarié S.

How are benefit generated?

In a simplified way, the profitability of an activity is obtained by selling expensive possible product or the service and while spending least possible to produce it.

One distinguishes from the normal incomes and the exceptional incomes:

the normal incomes are the products of the sales and of the current financial transactions over the current year (appropriations customers and suppliers)
the exceptional incomes do not form - by definition - part of the current operations of the company. It can be a question of sale of credits (buildings, machines, etc), of sale of subsidiary companies or various accounting transactions (ex: revaluation of the value financial of a stock).

The margin, calculated like difference between the selling price and the cost price of the goods incorporated in the market product represents the principal contribution for the benefit of the company.

To increase this margin, there exist only two levers:

to increase the price of the products or services sold (ex: to sell a motor vehicle with 15.000 €),
to reduce the production costs of the products or services sold (ex: to produce the vehicle with 12.000 €).

The means of action on the reduction of the costs are extremely varied, in particular:

to negotiate with the suppliers to lower the purchase prices of the incorporated goods,
to improve quality to produce with less reject,
to improve the productivity of the machines (to make them turn more quickly),
to improve the productivity of the men (improvement of the qualification, adjustment of the ratio enters fixed remuneration and that indexed on the results, improvement of the work conditions, audit of the practices with an aim of improving them, better staff management, management of competences, audit of the tools),
to decrease the taxation and levies of the production (tax on the profits, reduction in the wage contributions of social cases or of retirements, to be given exemptions)
to reduce stocks to reduce the immobilized capital,
to negotiate faster conditions of payment with respect to the customers in order to have less financial expenses.
to use free software to write-off the capital immobilized by the software paying owners
to be established beside the places of production of the raw materials.
to reduce the wage bill and the welfare benefits

To innovate to survive, innovate to conquer

The solution with these world displacements of the production centres of low added-value passes by the Innovation, the creation of activities to strong added value (ex: Airbus A380, TGV, intelligent cars, microprocessors, new materials, sophisticated software, Biotechnology S, armaments, nuclear plants, Droïde of assistance to the elderly, textiles intelligent, haute couture,…) asking a labor creative and highly qualified as well as the development of local services.

For memory, the services account for from now on 70% of economic activity (GDP) of the western world, which devotes the evolution of the countries developed towards the post-industrial economy.

Classification of the companies

The companies can be classified according to several criteria:

According to their activity:

Undertaken artisanal: It does not employ more than ten paid.
Business enterprise: It buys goods which it resells without transformation.
Industrial company: It transforms the raw materials and sells end products (or semi-finished), it belongs to the secondary industry, that of the transformation
Services company: It resells a work without manufacture of physical objects.

According to their Economic sector (determined by their principal activity):

Primary sector (agriculture, sylviculture, fishing, sometimes mines),
Secondary industry (industry, construction industry),
Tertiary sector (services),

Across this traditional classification, from the authors distinguishes a quaternary Secteur (research, development and information).

According to their size and of their economic impact (according to the definition of the European commission in its Recommendation of May 6th, 2003 (3002/361/CE - L124 Official journal of May 20th, 2003) :

Microphone-company: Subcategory of TPE defined in France by a Turnover lower than 76300 euros for those realizing of the operations of purchase-sale and than 27000 euros for the others (according to article 35 of the law of August 1st, 2003 for the economic initiative).
Very small company (TPE): less than 10 paid with either a Turnover lower than 2 million Euro S per annum, or a total Assessment lower than 2 million euros.
Small company (EP): between 10 paid and 49 paid with either a Turnover lower than 10 million Euro S per annum, or a total Assessment lower than 10 million euros.
Medium business (ME): between 50 paid and 249 paid with either a Turnover lower than 50 million Euro S per annum, or a total Assessment lower than 43 million euros.
Large company: 250 paid and more or at the same time a Turnover equal to or higher than 50 million Euro S per annum and a total Assessment equal to or higher than 43 million euros.
Group of companies: comprise a company-mother and subsidiary companies
Entreprise wide (or in network, or matric, or virtual): a pilot firm includes/understands working with many companies partners.

According to the branch and of the branch of industry (classification INSEE):

the sector: Together companies having the same principal activity.
the branch: Together of production units providing the same product or service.

According to their legal status:

capitalist companies,
the State enterprises, managed by the State,
the companies Co-operative S, in which the associates direct (employees, consumers, inhabitants, recipients of the service…)
the associations with nonlucrative goal, private companies whose benefit must be completely reinvested,
the mutual insurance companies

Important topics

Alliances and Partenariats
Accounts Department
Control of management
Finance
Taxation
Management of Logistic quality
Production
human Resources
Reorganization

Measurements of the performances

financial Analysis
Capacity of self-financing ( Cash-flow )
Turnover
Competitiveness
Course of the actions
Evaluation of company
Notoriety
Market share
Productivity
Bottom line
Profitability
Instrument panel
Added-value

Compete with

For the right of the competition, the legal form (Moral person of private law or public law, company, association) and drank it (lucrative or not) company are indifferent. Thus for the Community legislation, “the concept of company includes/understands any entity carrying on an economic activity, independently of the legal status of this entity and its way of financing” (Court of justice of the European Communities (CJCE), Höfner stop, 1991).

Nevertheless, an economic activity does not exert, and is not any more one company subjected to the right of the competition, the organization which fulfills an exclusively social function (CJCE, Poucet 1993) or that which exerts prerogatives of public power (CJCE, Eurocontrol, 1994).

Acquisition and transfer of company
Competition
Right of the competition
Fusion
Monopoly
Oligopoly
Plane marketing

Companies in difficulty

Suspension of payment
Voluntary liquidation
Bankruptcy
File for bankruptcy
Subsidy S, State aid and assistance of the banks

See too

Undertaken French
List of companies
Operation and organization of the company
Factors of organisational performance
Defense association of the shareholders

Simple: Company

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